Week 3: Ethical Theory and Thinking

Question 1

The Twitter Six

Answer 1

1. Conformation Bias
2. Genetic Fallacy
3. Ad hominem
4. Bifurcation
5. Appeal to Authority
6. Questionable Cause

Question 2

Confirmation Bias

Answer 2

-Not a logical fallacy, but a “cognitive bias”
-Looking for confirmation of your existing beliefs and not looking for a more objectively supported answer
-Arguments vs. Facts/Evidence

Question 3

Genetic Fallacy

Answer 3

Dismissing arguments strictly because of their source with no other reasons

Question 4

Ad hominem

Answer 4

Responding to, or posing an argument, based on criticisms of a person or group representing an opposing viewpoint
What’s the argument?

Question 5

Bifurcation

Answer 5

Suggesting that complex situations must always be dissected into binary positions on an issue

Question 6

Appeal to Authority

Answer 6

When someone bases his/her argument on his/her own knowledge or experience, and not on evidence that can be examined

Question 7

Questionable Cause

Answer 7

This fallacy occurs when an arguer gives insufficient evidence for a claim that one thing is the cause of another

Question 8

What are the subtypes of questionable cause

Answer 8

-Post hoc fallacy
-Mere correlation fallacy
-Oversimplified cause fallacy

Question 9

Post hoc fallacy

Answer 9

This fallacy occurs when an arguer assumes, without adequate reason, that because one event precedes another, that the first event was the cause of the second.

Question 10

Mere correlation fallacy

Answer 10

This fallacy occurs when an arguer assumes, without sufficient evidence, that a single condition or event is the sole cause of some effect, when there are in fact other contributing causes

Question 11

Oversimplified cause fallacy

Answer 11

The possible causes of something are assumed to be A and B and C but not A and B and C or A and C

Question 12

Definition of Ethics

Answer 12

“Ethics deals with questions of right or wrong conduct, and with what we ought to do and what we ought to refrain from doing. It considers issues of rights and obligations and how these are related to the social setting”

Question 13

How is ethics different from the law?

Answer 13

-they don’t cover the same things all the time
-you can apply ethics to law

Question 14

What are the Meta-Ethical Approaches

Answer 14

1. Ethical Objectivism
2. Ethical Relativism
3. Ethical Non-Cognitivism

Question 15

Ethical Objectivism

Answer 15

Right and wrong are “objective phenomena”
There are “moral facts”
Ethics is “objective in nature”

Question 16

What can we do with objective moral facts

Answer 16

1. know them
2. speak meaningfully about them
3. reason about them
4. Resolve disagreements by appeal to them

Question 17

Tenets of Objectivism

Answer 17

1. Cognitivist
2. Rationalist
3. Absolutist

Question 18

Cognitivist

Answer 18

There is an ethical reality we can know and speak about meaningfully

Question 19

Rationalist

Answer 19

Ethical disputes can be rationally resolved by logic and reasoning

Question 20

Absolutist

Answer 20

there is an objective right or wrong answer for every ethical question

Question 21

Ethical Naturalism

Answer 21

Moral facts are natural facts just like any other, they are observable, measurable features of the natural world

Question 22

Non-naturalism

Answer 22

there are moral facts but they are not observable features of the natural world

Question 23

Ethical Relativism

Answer 23

-Ethical statements are not objectively true or false in virtue of their correspondence with objective moral facts

Question 24

Three scopes of ethical relativism

Answer 24

1. Person
2. Culture or society
3. Historical or situational context

Question 25

Non-cognitivism

Answer 25

Ethical utterances are not really statements that can be validated, they do not assert anything objectively true or false, they assert your opinion on the issue

Question 26

What is ethical theory

Answer 26

brings perspective to an experience